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Friday, March 15, 2019

Yay...

Fan-freaking-tastic.

Four posts ago, I told y’all about a mysterious problem with my foot. I’ve known what it is for quite a while, but haven’t posted. No, I’m not dying, I simply haven’t thought about posting it.

So this mysterious problem is called Dystonia. It causes my foot to move on its own. All. The. Time. When I walk, my toes curl which makes it both difficult and painful. This started nearly two years ago. I went to doctor after doctor, two of whom told me I was imagining it and just needed to see a psychiatrist. I finally went to a neurologist who informed me that it was caused by Latuda. I figured this before and asked my med manager to switch me to something else. However, the neurologist told me there are like four meds I can take which don’t cause Dystonia. I’m on one of those now: Seroquel.

As you can imagine, this has taken quite a toll on me physically and emotionally. I used to be quite active, but now I can walk about five minutes without wanting to chop off my foot. I’ve gained weight because of this. That made me more depressed, and it’s just been a vicious cycle. Less movement causes more depression, which causes less movement. Yay side effects.

WebMD defines Dystonia:
Dystonia seems to be related to a problem in the basal ganglia. That's the area of the brain that is responsible for initiating muscle contractions. The problem involves the way the nerve cells communicate. Acquired dystonia is caused by damage to the basal ganglia.

It can last a few years or even be lifelong. All because I took a drug I didn’t want to take in the first place because I had heard about the side effects. My then med manager insisted that it was safe and I had nothing to worry about. That’s the last time I let anyone tell me to take a med I don’t want to take. 

Listen to your instincts. If you feel strongly about a medication, speak up. You know your mind and body better than anyone else.

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